A Co Antrim woman who left the scene after knocking down a pedestrian who then died has avoided a jail sentence.
At Ballymena Magistrates Court on Thursday, District Judge Nigel Broderick issued an enhanced combination order to Zoe Wallace (25).
He ordered her to complete 18 months on probation and 100 hours of community service. He also imposed a nine-month driving ban.
“I want to make it clear to you, this is not an easy option,” the judge warned her. He said there are “no second chances” and she will be back before the court if she fails to comply with the conditions. A breach of the order will lead to resentencing and “immediate custody”, he said.
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At an earlier hearing Wallace, from Grange Drive in Ballymoney, entered guilty pleas to charges of failing to remain and report following an accident that caused injury on the evening of August 28th, 2022.
Pedestrian John Corr (57), from Dunclug Gardens, Ballymena, was pronounced dead at the scene on Cushendall Road in the town.
A prosecuting lawyer said witnesses told police a woman at the scene “said she hit the male” before she and a man left the area in a grey BMW.
The following morning Wallace’s mother contacted the police saying she believed her daughter had been involved in a road traffic collision, the lawyer said.
Officers attended the address and arrested Wallace. Her BMW, parked in the yard of a business premises, “bore damage to the front passenger side, bonnet and windscreen”, the lawyer said.
The court heard Wallace admitted colliding with the pedestrian.
During police interviews, Wallace claimed that although she had been drinking alcohol on August 27th, she had stopped at about 3am on the morning of the accident.
She said she stopped and saw Mr Corr lying on the road but other people were assisting him and, not knowing what to do or that he had died, “she panicked and left”.
Defence counsel Thomas McKeever said Wallace wants to again “extend her sympathy to the family of the deceased”.
He said she stopped at the scene and he believes she was there for about 10 minutes.
He said Wallace’s passenger was encouraging her to leave the scene as he was breaching bail conditions by being there and she did not realise he had died.
“In hindsight it was a very foolish thing to do, and she will have to live with that for the rest of her life in terms of the consequences of that decision,” Mr McKeever said.
While Wallace had no convictions at the time, he said she was being investigated for driving while unfit and has since been convicted of being drunk while in charge of a vehicle, dangerous driving, failing to stop and having no insurance on April 15th/16th, 2023. He said she was also convicted for failing to stop, having no insurance and driving while banned on July 3rd, 2023.
He said Wallace was homeless at the time and had effectively been living in her car. Since then she has had strong family support and is “a very different person now” with plans to start a university course in the coming weeks, he said.
“She is still a young lady who has, hopefully, a promising life ahead,” he said.
Judge Broderick said it was “not without some hesitation” that he was minded to impose an enhanced combination order and a nine-month driving ban.
